Of course they are! In many ways they are cleverer. They have better people skills, deeper intuition, more patience, better dexterity, and greater verbal fluency. But sometimes they do seem to let themselves down in other ways . . .

As I headed back to the job at lunchtime with my chips I found the road blocked by a small red car which was sitting in the middle of the road with its hazard warning lights on. I parked and walked across and asked the driver, who I instantly categorised as a typical daughter (young, pretty, blonde, argumentative) what the problem was. She said “It just won't go.” She continued to engage the starter. I suggested that we push the car into a driveway so the traffic could flow. I then asked her to turn the ignition on. A large yellow light on the dashboard with a picture of a petrol pump on it glowed brightly. The fuel gauge needle didn't move. I pointed these symptoms out. She said quite indignantly “Well it's not that light. It’s been on all week.”

Later I went into a customer’s flat and immediately noticed a smell of burning. In order to dig out the aerial socket I lifted the TV set off the wall unit. This revealed a power supply unit of the type often used with laptops, wrapped in a plastic bag and sealed up with Sellotape. It was very hot indeed. It was the power supply for the DTT box, which was showing a standby light but turned out to be faulty. I explained to the lady that what she’d done wasn’t wise, and she said that when the power supply had started to smell (a few days after the receiver had failed) she had wrapped it up in an attempt to prevent the smell getting into the room.